GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1919 



(laik-and-the-iain method. Unless yon have 

 iheuniatisiu. 



» * * 



Another stoiy this same lady told us was 

 about a successful young farmer beekeeper 

 of a near-by county who had gone his brave 

 way to France. It probably wouldn 't have 

 happened if he had been at home. One day 

 in late summer someone discovered that 

 about half a barrel of honey had started to 

 ferment. They decided it was of no use, 

 fermented. They would feed it to the bees. 

 Thereupon they tipped up the barrel and 

 poured the honey out upon the ground. The 

 bees did the rest. 



But their mother was away from home 

 that day, and as she came driving into the 

 place on her return, in her phaeton, behind 

 her own special pet horse, the boys started 

 walking out to meet her. Then they dis- 

 covered an alarming excitement among the 

 bees. It was as tho every hive had emptied 

 itself of every bee of flying age, and they 

 were all out for spoils — the same spoils. 

 Three feet deep they fought over that honey. 

 And they were wild — mad — utterly beside 

 themselves. The boys made a wild dash to 

 meet their unsuspecting mother, almost pull- 

 ed her from the phaeton and fairly carried 

 her into the house. Then they ran back to 

 the horse. But the bees had got there first. 

 In 15 minutes the horse was dead. 



Note to Beginners: Don't feed honey by 

 the half barrelful, in the open, during a 

 dearth of nectar. Or at any other time. Un- 

 less you have too many horses. But remem- 

 ber you have only one mother. 



7^ * * 



Among the many myths about bees, cur- 

 rent among even intelligent people, one that 

 needs exploding is the idea that bees never 

 sting certain j^eople. These particularly fa- 

 vored ones would seem to lead charmed 

 lives, or carry about them some unconsci- 

 ous spell or magic that renders all bees 

 friendly. The opposite side of the myth of 

 course shows the bees with a bitter an- 

 tipathy for certain other unfortunate ones 

 who cannot step anywhere near a hive with- 

 out getting stung, promptly. And, accord 

 ing to the telling, it always makes a much 

 worse swelling and is far more serious than 

 the stings that other people get. 



Of course, every real beekeeper knows 

 that the big simple fact of the matter is 

 that the attitude of the bee to the person 

 is largely determined by the person's atti- 

 tude towards the bee. Fear, with a nervous 

 striking at the first bee that comes humming 

 one's way, brings its own quite inevitable 

 result — a resentful bee and a sting. While 

 fearlessness and composure, a steady quiet 

 bearing and gentle movements leave the 

 bees unruffled and the person unstung. Mr. 

 Gill, "one of the six best beekeepers in 

 the United States, ' ' the man who knows 

 his Maeterlinck as well as his markets, says 

 of bees (page 508) that "what they hate 

 most is nervous, jerky, excitable, swearing 



people.'' (Note that last quality!) And 

 he also says of Mrs. Gill and himself, ' ' "We 

 work together so calmly that the bees take 

 us right into the family and never sting us." 

 1 suspect he meant practically never sting; 

 "never,'' unmodified, is such a big word. 

 But he has touched the keynote and said a 

 thing that all who are beginning with bees 

 should remember. 



One morning while Mr. Allen was riding 

 in a street car to the office, the man next to 

 him started a conversation, regardless of 

 Mr. Allen 's open paper. The talk ran along 

 in a rather one-sided manner, till the 

 stranger pointed to a house they were pass- 

 ing. "See that house?" he queried. Mr. 

 Allen saw it. 



''The fellah that lives there's the mean- 

 est man I ever knew," he asserted. 



"So?" from Mr. Allen, as he turned 

 again to his paper, indifferent to the gossip. 



' ' Yeah, ' ' from the other, indifferent to 

 the paper; "he used to have some bees." 



Mr. Allen folded his paper. "He did?" 

 much interested. 



"Yeah. He had bees an a friend o' mine 

 had kidney trouble. He'd done tried every- 

 thing everybody 'd told him about, and then 

 somebody told him bout bee tea. So he ast 

 this fellah to give him some bees for the 

 tea, and he wouldn 't do it. ' ' 



Mr. Allen waited — I suppose with bated 

 breath. But the man had reached the cli- 

 max of his tale, the meanness of the man 

 who lived in the house. Mr. Allen had to 

 fish to get the rest. 



' ' Oouldn 't your friend get the bees any- 

 where else?'' he finally prompted. 



"Yeah. He knew a fellah out in the 

 country an he give him all he wanted." 



" Er — how did he make the — the bee 

 tea?" 



' ' Boiletl em up and drunk it. ' ' 



' ' I see. And — did it cure him ? ' ' 



" Naw. Made him better for a while but 

 he got bad again. Finally died. I reckon 

 he'd ougha took it reglar. " 



"Probably so," Mr. Allen murmured as 

 he left the car at his regular stop. 



Note to Beginners: Don't start taking bee 

 tea for medicinal purposes, unless you 're 

 willing to take it "reglar." And it might be 



habit -forming. 



* * * 



SONNET. 



TO THOSE TO COME. 



All. YdU to Come! You will not know at all 



That I have lived, and thrilled, and deeply stirred, 

 And felt my spirit like a wakened bird 



Strike, singing:, out — yet here I send my call 



To You Who Come! Down life's resounding hall. 

 Strung with old dreams, I drop my singing word ; 

 And tho it reach you, mine no more, but blurred. 



And lost in deeper chords — ah, may it fall 



Within the vibrant heart of some brave youth, 

 And turn him from some roaring city's crowd 



To where young beauty walks with ancient truth, 

 To where the seed is sowed and fields are plowed. 



To where God walks in gardens while the liees. 



Drift niund and hum — to all such things as these. 



